Vehicle air compressor device

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a vehicle air compressor device which includes a motor device serving as a driving power source, a drier device conducted compressed air; the drier device arranged opposing to the motor device; and a supporting member for supporting the air compressor device to a vehicle at a portion where the motor device and the drier device is adjacent each other.

[0001] This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C.§ 119 with respect to Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-023575 filedon Jan. 31, 2003 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-015328 filedon Jan. 23, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated hereinby reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to an air compressor device. Moreparticularly, the present invention pertains to an air compressor deviceused for a vehicle air suspension device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Known air compressor devices for supplying the compressed air toa vehicle air suspension device are described in the U.S. Pat. No.6,074,177 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.H11(1999)-264375. The air compressor devices include a motor portionserving as a driving power source, a piston crank portion connected withan output shaft of the motor portion and generates compressed air by thepiston, and a drier portion for removing water and/or moisture droppingfrom the compressed air supplied from the piston crank portion.

[0004] With the air compressor devices, the motor portion and the drierportion are arranged in parallel each other on boarding the vehicle. Theknown air compressors further includes the piston crank portionconnected to an end of the motor portion and to an end of the drierportion so that the motor portion, the piston crank portion, and thedrier portion are installed approximately U shape as one unit to be thevehicle air compressor device.

[0005] It has been required to improve the throughput efficiency ofdesign by standardizing the designs as much as possible so that the aircompressor device is applicable to the various vehicle characteristics.In order to meet this request, a design flexibility is required.Although the motor portion and the drier portion are arranged inparallel each other to be mounted with the drier portion of the aircompressor device, the design considering the size reduction and thesimplification of the components are required due to the limitation ofthe space and/or dimension on the vehicle.

[0006] Further, in order to modify a design with different requests ofthe specification on the vehicle air compressor devices, for example, astroke of the piston has to be changed for modifying the volume of thecompression air to be supplied. With the counter measures in order tomeet the foregoing a specification request with the device, the centerof mass of the motor device and the center of mass of the drier portionare away from each other in case the length of the piston crank providedbetween the motor device and the drier portion gets longer. Thisdeteriorates an anti-vibration characteristics on boarding environment,for example, the motor device and the drier portion are affectedvibration from the vehicle body. Further, because the motor device andthe drier portion composing the main portion of the air compressordevice is likely influenced by vibration, the structure with highvibration resistance has been required.

[0007] A need thus exists for a vehicle air compressor device whichmeets the design standardization including high performance on vibrationresistance and downsizing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] In light of the foregoing, the present invention provides avehicle air compressor device which includes a motor device serving as adriving power source, a drier device conducted compressed air; the drierdevice arranged opposing to the motor device; and a supporting memberfor supporting the air compressor device to a vehicle at a portion wherethe motor device and the drier device is adjacent each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

[0009] The foregoing and additional features and characteristics of thepresent invention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription considered with reference to the accompanying drawings andfigures in which like reference numerals designate like elements.

[0010]FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a vehicle aircompressor device according to a first embodiment of the presentinvention.

[0011]FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a secondembodiment of the vehicle air compressor device including anotherarrangement of the bracket serving as a supporting member.

[0012]FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a thirdembodiment of the vehicle air compressor device including anotherarrangement of the bracket serving as a supporting member.

[0013]FIG. 4 is a top view showing an arrangement of a bracket of FIG.1.

[0014]FIG. 5a is a top view showing a water collecting portion of thedrier cover.

[0015]FIG. 5b is a vertical cross-sectional view of the water collectingportion taken on the direction of the arrow V-V in FIG. 5a.

[0016]FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the drier cover and the motorhousing taken on the direction of the arrow VI-VI in FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] Embodiments of the present invention will be explained withreference to the accompanied drawings and figures.

[0018] As shown in FIG. 1, an air compressor device 1 for vehicleincludes a drier device 20 positioned opposing to an output shaft 3 of amotor device 2 in the axial direction. A piston crank device 10 includesa crank 4 tightly linked to the output shaft 3 of the motor device 2, apiston 8 connected to a connecting rod 7 supporting a bearing 9 at thecrank 4 side end portion via a pin 5 and a pin bush 6, and a bolt 12.

[0019] Piston seals 15 a, 15 b are engaged and being inserted intogrooves 8 a, 8 b respectively formed in the piston crank device 10 sothat the piston 8 can smoothly slide in a cylinder 14. A suction valve16 for sucking air is provided at a head side of the piston 8. Adischarge valve 17 operates as a directional valve for supplying thecompressed air via through a conduit 18 to the drier device 20 is alsoarranged at the head side of the piston 8. The conduit 18 for supplyingthe compressed air to the drier device 20 is formed to fold backapproximately in parallel with the moving direction of the piston 8.

[0020] A water collecting portion 22 shown in FIGS. 5a, 5 b is providedat a bottom portion of the drier device 20 adjacent to an openingportion of the conduit 18. The water collecting portion 22 includes antapered surface for collecting water or moisture drop and having a slope21 for guiding water to a drain outlet 19. A filter 23 is provided at alower portion of the slope 21. An exhaust air-passage 24 and an exhaustair valve 25 are provided forward direction of the filter 23. Collectedwater in the water collecting portion 22 is discharged to the atmospherewith the compressed air passing the drain outlet 19 through the exhaustair valve 25 controlled by a controller. The water collecting portion22, the exhaust air passage 24 and the exhaust air valve housing aremade of resin or of plating metal, or are made resist coating to avoidcorrosion. A chamber 26 of the drier device 20 is provided at the upperportion of the water collecting portion 22. Desiccant 27 is filled inthe chamber 26 and supported by a filter 28 and a plate 29 upwardlyurged by a spring 30. A check valve orifice is provided at an upper sideof the chamber 26 or in the middle of a tube or a pipe connected to anair cylinder tightly hold to the vehicle body, or the like. The checkvalve orifice controls the flow of compressed air to the air suspensionso that compressed air flows without resistance when the compressed airis supplied to the air cylinder and the only regulated amount ofcompressed air flows when the compressed air returns from the aircylinder to the chamber 26 of the drier device 20.

[0021] A gasket 34 serving as the sealing member and a bracket 35 aresandwiched between the drier cover 37 of the drier device 20 and themotor housing 31. Also the gasket 34 may be provided between the driercover 37 and the bracket 35. The bolt 36 is fastened after equipping acollar 39 so that an axial force is not affected to the chamber 26 andthe drier cover 37 of the drier device 20.

[0022] The motor housing 31, the drier device 20 including the driercover 37, the gasket 34 and the bracket 35 are fastened altogether bythe bolt 36.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 4, the bracket 35 has a plural flange portions35 f that is radially extending. The bracket 35 is supported with thevehicle body through a fixing portions 35 a formed the top end of theflange portions 35 f. The length of the flange portions 35 f areflexibly determined according to the clearance for fixing on the vehiclebody.

[0024]FIG. 6 shows a cross-sectional view of the motor housing 31 and adrier cover 37 taken along the line VI-VI of FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 6,the drier cover 37 is having at least two sets of projected portions 40and the motor housing 31 is having at least two sets of concave portions41 for defining the circumferential position between the motor housing31 and the drier cover 37. In order to define the assembling positionbetween the motor housing 31 and the drier cover 37, the projectedportion 40 and concave portion 41 is used to adjusting these positions.

[0025] For instance, if the position of the projected portions 40 andthe concave positions 41 are asymmetrically designed, an incorrectassembling could be prevented.

[0026] As shown in FIG. 2, a second embodiment of the present inventionincludes another arrangement of the bracket 35 provided at the aircompressor device 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the bracket 35 and a motorcover 38 are unitarily formed with the single member or plural members.

[0027] As shown in FIG. 3, a third embodiment of the present inventionincludes another configuration of the bracket 35 provided on the aircompressor device 1. As shown in FIG. 3, the drier device 20 isunitarily formed with the bracket 35 with insert molding. The aircompressor 1 is fixed to a vehicle frame member with the bracket 35using the bolt directly or through another supporting member.

[0028] As foregoing explanation, the bracket 35 may be formed unitarilywith or may be unitarily assembled with the motor device 2, the drierdevice 20, or the like. Since the bracket 35 is positioned relativelyclose to the piston crank device 10, the entire air compressor device 1can be supported at the center of the balance of the air compressordevice 1. Further, since the assembled position of the bracket 35 isclose to the piston crank device 10 corresponding to the movableportion, vibration from the air compressor device 1 can be restrainedagainst vibration by the piston actuation.

[0029] An operation of the embodiment of the present invention will beexplained as follows. The air compressor device 1 of this invention iswidely applied to an air compressor system, and the usage of the aircompressor device 1 of the present invention is not limited to thisembodiment.

[0030] In order to lift-up the vehicle height, the suction valve 16 isopened for introducing the air to a compression space in the cylinder14. Then the air is compressed in the piston crank device 10 that isdriven by the motor device 2 to generate the compressed air. Next, thecompressed air is introduced to the drier device 20. The absorbed waterin the compressed air is sent to the drier 20 via the conduit 18.Thereafter, the desiccant 27 in the drier device 20 gets rid of absorbedwater in the compressed air.

[0031] The compressed air dried by the desiccant 27 in the chamber 26 ofthe drier device 20 is sent to the air cylinder via the check valveorifice of the chamber 26 in order to lift-up the vehicle height.

[0032] In order to lift-down the vehicle height, the discharging airvalve 25, shown in the FIG. 5a, is opened so that the compressed air inthe air suspension system is discharged and the compressed air isreleased to the atmosphere via the outlet 19 and the discharging airpassage 24. Accordingly, the discharging air valve 25 enables tolift-down the vehicle height.

[0033] Since the compressed air is taken some heat away, compressed aircontaining water is high in the temperature. Some water vapor iscondensed and becomes to be water and move to the water collectingportion 22. The conduit 18 may be arranged to elongate a predeterminedlength for gaining the cooling effect. The conduit 18 is made ofmaterials having sufficient cooling efficiency.

[0034] By forming the conduit 18 with the metal member, for example, thecooling efficiency can be further increased. In that case, the corrosionresistance has to be considered without destroying a metal property.

[0035] Since the relative movement between the motor device and thedrier device are restricted by fixing single bracket, it is not requiredto support the motor device and the drier device with the pluralsupporting member. Also, since the supporting member is positioned at anintermediate position between the motor device and the drier device, thesupporting member can be placed close to the center of the balance ofthe air compressor device. Thus, the vibration reflected from thevehicle body is decreased to the air compressor device comparing withthe conventional configuration of the air compressor device. Further,the supporting member enable to be provided close to the piston crankdevice corresponding to the moving portion of the vehicle air compressordevice.

[0036] According to the embodiments, by designing the supporting memberto be supported with the drier device or the motor device, thesupporting member enhances an anti-vibration efficiency.

[0037] According to the embodiments, the supporting member is unitarilyassembled with the drier device or the motor device. By unitarilyassembled the supporting member with the drier device and the motordevice or by simultaneously the motor device with the same fasteningmember or the connection member or the like. Easy assembling is achievedbecause of the reduction of component parts.

[0038] According to the embodiments, since the conduit for supplying thecompressed air to the drier device is formed to be longer stroke thanthe piston stroke, the compressed air is cooled down for the compressedair during passing through in the conduit. Thus, some compressed aircontained water vapor inside condensed.

[0039] Because water or vapor drops are purged from humid compressed airand so that water adsorbed desiccant in the drier device can berelatively reduced. According to the embodiments, since the conduit maybe made of metal having sufficient cooling efficiency, the drier devicecan downsize for designing because desiccant may cut down the volume inthe chamber.

[0040] According to the embodiments, by arranging a part of the conduitin parallel with the moving direction of the piston, for example, byproviding the conduit along the piston crank device, the dead spacebetween the motor device and the drier device is reduced to the vehicleair compressor device.

[0041] According to the embodiments, since the water collecting portionincluding the inclination and the space for collecting the waterremained in the conduit is provided at the open end portion of theconduit for discharging the water to the atmosphere in the predeterminedcondition, this structure reduces the size of the drier device and thusthe total size of the air compressor device.

[0042] Accordingly, with the structure of the embodiments, save deadspace between the motor device and the drier device of the vehicle aircompressor device, and the reduction of the assembling time is saved,Further, the design complying with the standardization withoutsignificant design change can be achieved corresponding to the variousdifferent specifications on the air compressor devices.

[0043] The principles, preferred embodiment and mode of operation of thepresent invention have been described in the foregoing specification.However, the invention which is intended to be protected is not to beconstrued as limited to the particular embodiments disclosed. Further,the embodiment described herein is to be regarded as illustrative ratherthan restrictive. Variations and changes may be made by others, andequivalents employed, without departing from the spirit of the presentinvention. Accordingly, it is expressly intended that all suchvariations, changes and equivalents which fall within the spirit andscope of the present invention as defined in the claims, be embracedthereby.

1. A vehicle air compressor device comprising: a motor device serving asa driving power source; a drier device conducted compressed air; and thedrier device arranged opposing to the motor device; a supporting memberfor supporting the air compressor device to a vehicle at a portion wherethe motor device and the drier device is adjacent each other.
 2. Thevehicle air compressor device according to the claim 1, wherein thesupporting member is pinched and supported by the drier device or by themotor device.
 3. The vehicle air compressor device according to theclaim 1, wherein the supporting member is unitarily assembled with thedrier device or with the motor device.
 4. The vehicle air compressordevice according to the claim 1 further includes a piston crank devicefor generating compressed air attached onto drier device and the motordevice.
 5. The vehicle air compressor device according the claim 4,wherein a conduit is provided between the piston crank device and thedrier device.
 6. The vehicle air compressor device according to theclaim 1, wherein the conduit is configured to be longer than a strokelength of the piston crank device.
 7. The vehicle air compressor deviceaccording to the claim 1, wherein the drier device includes aninclination inclined towards an axis of the drier device.
 8. A vehicleair compressor device comprising: a motor device serving as a drivingpower source; a piston crank device generates compressed air by a pistonconnected to an output shaft of the motor device; a drier device havinga water and moisture collecting portion at a lower portion of the drierdevice; and the piston crank device is mutually linked as an unit to themotor device and the drier device.
 9. The vehicle air compressor deviceaccording to the claim 8, wherein a supporting member mutually linksamong the piston crank device, the drier device and the motor device.10. The vehicle air compressor device according to the claim 8, whereinthe supporting member is unitarily assembled with the drier device orwith the motor device.
 11. The vehicle air compressor device accordingto the claim 8, wherein the drier device includes an inclinationinclined towards an axis of the drier device.